The present invention relates generally to notching equipment, and more specifically to a device that is capable of forming two notches in a hollow workpiece in the same action.
Polyvinyl tubing is commonly used for many purposes, including by way of example rather than limitation, fencing, decking, lawn furniture etc. In such applications, it is often required that the polyvinyl tubing be processed in one or more ways. For example, in many applications notches must be formed into two or more of the sidewalls in order to permit an end portion of one piece of tubing to be inserted and securely locked in a receiving aperture in another piece of tubing. In an application such as polyvinyl fence systems, for example, the notched end of one tubular polyvinyl fence rail is inserted into a receiving aperture in a tubular polyvinyl fence post, thereby forming an easy to assemble joint.
The processing of such components often requires the polyvinyl tubing to go through several repetitions in a notching die to create a single complete section of tubing. In such a process, the workpiece (e.g. a piece of hollow polyvinyl tubing or some other tubing material) is aligned and inserted into the notching die. The die is cycled to create a notch on a first surface, and then the workpiece is removed from the die and reoriented. The reoriented workpiece is again inserted into the die to create another notch on a second surface. This process is repeated until the desired number and location of notches is achieved.
In order to improve processing efficiencies it may be desirable to create multiple notches in a single action.